Belgian Soldiers: Perceptions of the Enemy During the First World War, 1914-1918

The First World War was a long stalemated war in which millions of men fought and died. Many studies have looked at the reasons soldiers fought and stopped fighting. In this study, the perceptions that Belgian soldiers had of their enemy, Germany, are studied. The Belgian army was stationed on a small part of the front at the coast, the last part of Belgium that is not occupied. The war can be divided into three phases: the first phase is the invasion until the Germans were stopped, the second begins with the stalemate and the development of trench warfare on the Western Front, and the third and last phase is the pushing back of the Germans and final victory. With the ending of the war old grudges were not settled. Many Belgians never forgot what happened, nor let go of their views that were formed during the war. Hopefully this study, by looking at the often overlooked soldiers of the Belgian army, will present new insights on the soldiers who fought in the First World War to everyone interested in war studies.